BREAKING NEWS: The head coach and Pittsburgh die fans made promising words to stand with Pirates saying Pittsburgh is defined by its fireworks

Tens of thousands of people flocked to downtown Pittsburgh for Highmark First Night a few nights ago. The biggest New Year’s Eve celebration in the area celebrated its 30th anniversary with a historic gathering that took over 14 blocks in the Cultural District. Pittsburghers welcomed 2024 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to reopen the Clemente Bridge, a puppet-filled parade, and a 24-foot-tall burning tree sculpture. The last fireworks display of the year in Pittsburgh was, of course, the grand finale.

The significance of the fireworks was emphasized by Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor in an interview with the Pittsburgh City Paper regarding the Greenfield Holiday Parade, which also marked its 30th anniversary. He had gone above and beyond every year to finance them, getting a special permit to launch from Greenfield’s Magee Field inside the city boundaries, together with his late father, former Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor.

“Pittsburghers are big fans of fireworks,” he remarked dryly.

This begged the question: Do fireworks drive Pittsburghers crazy?

As you begin to add it up, you’ll see that there are fireworks everywhere. Light Up Night commemorated its sixty-first year. Originally launched over Point State Park, the fireworks are currently fired from barges on the Allegheny River. Last season, the Pirates held at least six scheduled fireworks nights at PNC Park. Acrisure Stadium also demonstrates a similar level of enthusiasm, with pregame and halftime displays in addition to our annual Fourth of July celebration. During Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in June of last year, the stadium even lit up, bursting into orange and purple pyrotechnics when she sang her smash song, “Lavender Haze.” And then there are the numerous fireworks displays in neighborhoods, which appear to be in every township and borough.

A recent WalletHub analysis claims that Pittsburgh leads the country in terms of the “legality of fireworks,” which suggests that we are probably rather lax when it comes to their use. The city also comes in at number 13 overall for the best New Year’s Eve celebration—a respectable position considering that larger towns like New York and Chicago are ranked ahead of us and Orlando, the world’s center of amusement, comes in first.

I’ll admit it now: I don’t really like fireworks. My cat always hides under the couch at Pitt Homecoming, another fireworks display in the city, because they are noisy, dangerous, and have the potential to cause injuries and fatalities. In addition, they damage the environment, making Pittsburgh’s already poor air quality worse in the little time it takes for them to launch.

To run the risk of seeming like even more of a killjoy, but do fireworks really have that much fun? The spectacle may not demand the same level of interest as it previously did, as evidenced by the advent of laser and drone exhibitions. We are discussing a technology that hasn’t changed all that much in thousands of years, right?

Here’s where I might be undervaluing things with this final query:. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette examined the city’s rich history with pyrotechnics in a 2015 piece headlined “Pittsburgh’s long-lasting love affair with fireworks,” noting that American pyrotechnic festivities go back farther than the nation itself, even before the Revolutionary War was ever declared victorious.

Meredith Carroll of the Post-Gazette wrote, “It should come as no surprise that the elaborate displays of today pale in comparison to the fireworks of yesteryear.” “Raised platforms with fireworks arranged to create patriotic images delighted early Americans.”There were very few rockets that defied gravity and vibrant hues.

Zambelli Fireworks is at the heart of both Pittsburgh’s apparent fireworks mania and pyrotechnic “innovation.” The town of New Castle, Pennsylvania, was granted the title of “Fireworks Capital of America” through a U.S. patent due to the fireworks company’s previous headquarters there. In 2018, Zambelli relocated its headquarters to Cranberry.

Zambelli Pyrotechnics, a family-run business spanning three generations, was founded in 1893 when Antonio Zambelli arrived in the US from Italy with a fabled black book full of “recipes” for making pyrotechnics. The majority of the nation’s fireworks recipes were closely guarded trade secrets until at least 20 years ago, according to Gianni DeVincent Hayes in her 2003 book Zambelli: The First Family of Fireworks. These recipes were “usually written in black books that remain in the possession of the family patriarch… [where] generally no backup copies exist.” Zambelli kept his recipes in a safe and had them transcribed in Italian.

The company was founded and has since produced both large-scale and small-scale fireworks displays throughout Pittsburgh, such as the popular Zambelli Fireworks show after Pirates games and the former Three Rivers Regatta. When the corporation fired fireworks from the top of the U.S. Steel Tower, it even broke the altitude record for the world.

However, Zambelli has expanded its reach over the years, putting off fireworks at state dinners held in the White House, presidential inaugurations (the company’s history features John F. Kennedy’s), the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, the Times Square Ball Drop on New Year’s Eve, Mount Rushmore, and the Kentucky Derby. Over the course of two days, July 3rd and 4th, a significant portion of the company’s business is still conducted, with Zambelli fireworks showing up at an estimated 800 events around the nation.

Pittsburgh pride comes out when you throw 130 years of history and a moniker like “Fireworks Capital of America” at me. Making the case for pyrotechnics in her book, DeVincent Hayes writes, “There’s something special about shooting fire across a black background.” Fireworks are praised in a book review as “jewelry for the sky.” Overall, I still have mixed feelings, but I will always defend Pittsburgh’s right to unbridled enthusiasm, no matter how unreasonable.

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